AT&T declares it could have saved T-Mobile from job losses

It's the FCC's fault that T-Mobile has had to cut jobs, AT&T states in a …

AT&T has issued an I-told-you-so press release addressing the T-Mobile layoffs announced Friday, asserting that they wouldn't have happened if the FCC had just let AT&T buy T-Mobile. Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, said in the statement that T-Mobile's recent misfortune demonstrates the need for more "regulatory humility," and that "the truth of who was right is sadly obvious." AT&T is referring, of course, to itself.

While AT&T was trying to acquire T-Mobile, the company asserted that the merger would create many jobs, a claim that the FCC and the US Department of Justice refused to believe. In fact, the FCC stated in its own report that the merger would create a "net loss of direct jobs."

T-Mobile stated Friday that it plans to close seven call centers and cut 1,900 jobs. In AT&T's press release, Cicconi said that the company planned specifically to protect "these very same small call centers and jobs if our merger was approved," and that the job loss has proven the FCC made the wrong choice.

Of course, the FCC's and DoJ's real concern was that the reduction in competition that the merger would have created. Four billion dollars later, AT&T is apparently still smarting at their decision.

Editor's Update: Friday evening, a spokesperson for the FCC sent an e-mail to All Things Dflatly denying claims made by AT&T's petulant press release, saying "The bottom line is that AT&T’s proposal to acquire a major competitor was unprecedented in scope and the company’s own confidential documents showed that the merger would have resulted in significant job losses." The spokesperson did not elaborate on the details of those confidential documents.